I wrapped everything inside a garbage bag and place it into a 5 gallon plastic home depot bucket.

I then sealed the lid of the bucket with a silicone caulk and duct taped the seal. I then sprayed the outside of the bucket with polyurethane spray.

Before putting the bucket in the ground I wrapped it in 2 more garbage bags.

The hole I dug was about three feet deep, I placed the bucket in the hole at an angle as I saw a post on here once before mentioning that method.

I put rocks below the bucket in the ground to ensure better drainage, and then filled everything in as tightly as possible with the dirt I had just excavated.

As you can see the dirt that I excavated was very different from the groundcover, a thinking man would know something was buried here. Also, the presence of any dirty rocks with uniform dark patina on surfaces will suggest excavation as well. I made sure to remove as much dirt as possible to a distant secondary location and to get rid of any telltale rocks. I then replaced the groundcover over the location.

I placed a large rock over the area where the cache was placed to aid in recovery and made sure it looked natural.
I am planning on this cache lasting 5-10 years.

Thanks for reading. I would appreciate your comments and suggestions.

Tom

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I would have put the stuff in double layer mylar bags and then inside the bucket. Then, pour oil into the bucket to cover the bags. The oil would keep the bags good and also prevent air from getting near them. The oil could also be useful if you ever need to dig it up.

Currently working on my second real cache. Similar to yours except I had to 'smuggle' all my supplies to the location. Mine is on a bluff that has a cave beneath it, near a river bank. I suppose if a SHTF hit the trails to the area would fall into disrepair but as long as I get to the river I can find the spot easily enough. It took me 5 trips (two weekends) to get all the stuff to the area unnoticed.

The cave doesn't get much traffic even in good times so when the area grows in (its THICK jungle), there'll be a nice cave beside tropical stream and a cache of stuff.

I used a 'compass key' to mark the location of the cache. Stand in a certain spot, line up two distinct geographical features on the compass. I scratched the 'key' discreetly into a nearby rock, so all I have to do is go to the area with a compass, get the numbers, stand on the correct spot and I'll be able to find it again years from now. Someone may find the numbers in the rock, but they'll never know the correct spot to stand to make the numbers useful. Only I know that.

If possible take GPS data of the location (not cell phone gps) and also take some measurements with string and triangulate the spot with several points from large solid trees with some bright colored string, granted it not a logging forest. Take a polaroid photo of that and keep it in your BOB. You can retriangulate your position with paracord or improvised coradage.

Best to keep redundancy with all aids to help you find your cache. You might be tired, hungry, and cold when try to find it, plus if there in 6" of snow you will not find your rock, which could also move from heavy rain fall and wind.

In the future you may want to consider a PVC pipe cache as it may be more deterioration resistant to UV light and the elements.
Adding some hiking style dehydrated meals might be a great alternative to canned food for your next cache. As if you need to carry them along with you and their expiration dates will often be longer than canned goods. Also some batteries and some fire starting tools ie storm matches & lighter would be a nice addition of basics.

If you mark the spot with GPS whats the odds those signals are dead after a real bad shtf.

Just wondering, also, how about a pole reversal, wouldnt that screw up compass readings too?

it's amazingly simple to find obscure points using a good compass and natural landmarks as your only guide. just be sure to keep a written record of what you used to find it, or else you really might be screwed. a picture or drawing of a natural feature in the immediate vicinity of the cache can be especially helpful, depending on how accurate you can shoot your azimuths.

Good job. However, as others have said either GPS or compass the exact location or you might never find it again. Everytime I dig up my septic tank cover I have to consult my map.....and it's right in my own backyard!

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Good Job......
the fact that you made the cache is 90% of it.......Hopefully you'll never need it and it will be there for ever. Commit the location to memory and visit the area occasionally. I've often debated the including of a weapon in a cache but I think an extra pair of boots and some socks would be worth more. Perhaps a little something to barter with.
If your forced to dig up your cache to stay alive then your weapons are probably already with you or you wouldn't have made this far.
Thanks for the pics

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I'll just add my chime to the ones suggesting multiple ways to find it. You didn't say, so you might have done that.

My preference is to use 3 methods: logic word, gps and compass keys.

The location I need to start from is the logic word. Those get laminated and tucked into the lining of my pack. Compass keys once at the starting point. A good GPS point to keep handy so I can check on things with time.

Great job getting started!

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Good Job......
the fact that you made the cache is 90% of it.......Hopefully you'll never need it and it will be there for ever. Commit the location to memory and visit the area occasionally. I've often debated the including of a weapon in a cache but I think an extra pair of boots and some socks would be worth more. Perhaps a little something to barter with.
If your forced to dig up your cache to stay alive then your weapons are probably already with you or you wouldn't have made this far.
Thanks for the pics

Boots and socks are a good addition. A cheap plastic poncho might be good too. Upon thinking about it further, a water filter/straws/tabs etc would probably be a good addition as well.

I mainly mentioned the weapon because he had the ammo in there already. Might as well toss in a cheapo pistol that uses that ammo. Even if he arrives and doesn't need it, he can rebury for another time, or arm someone else that came with him that might be unarmed.

Saying that your weapons are with you if you made it that far is not really the best logic. You could have lost everything and that's why you're digging up the cache. I put weapons pretty high on the list of "things that will be taken away from us at the first possible opportunity" so I tend to prefer a lot of redundancy with weapons.

Also, is there any chance of the canned goods freezing and/or rupturing? I'm not nit picking here, just wanting you to make sure you don't dig it up and find a mess. The bucket didn't look buried below frost line.

I also second the notion of half burying the rock. Somebody could come along and decide to make a campfire nearby and move that rock for their fire or whatever. Just saying.

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